Shipping on The Great Lakes and Global Markets MARCH 2016 With the advent of spring comes the opening of one of the busiest waterways in the entire world, the Great Lakes shipping season. After a mild winter, American and Canadian authorities had no issues opening up the St. Lawrence Seaway to trade running from Chicago to Montreal. In fact, some ports are clamoring for more traffic in order to boost the local economy. The Port of Muskegon is first and foremost among them on account of the fact that 2016 represents a year where the town can go in several directions: the B.C. Cobb power plant will shut its doors, meaning that Muskegon not only has a surplus of laidoff workers but also will have to find more work for the shipyards since they will import only about half as much coal as last year. With the return of the spring shipping season, the United States Army Corps of Engineers faces a choice as well. The government must analyze each port on the Great Lakes in order to classify which harbors need maintenance work (including dredging out mud, weeds, and debris that could choke the important causeways). Any harbor that handles more than one million tons of freight gets the classification of a highuse harbor, putting it on the fasttrack for repairs; the city of Chicago's harbors, for instance, handle about twelve million tons of seaborne freight per year. This figure is a sword hanging above the head of Muskegon. The city hasn't been able to hit the millionton threshold in the past year, meaning that they will need to make up the difference with a highvolume freight transfer (such as road salt) so that they can register the golden number. They may get it, because while Michigan had a mild winter, much of eastern Canada couldn't say the same. The inaugural shipment on the Great Lakes waterway, the ship Thunder Bay , sailed through Welland Canal with a shipment of road salt due to the depleted stocks throughout Ontario and Quebec. Canada's St. Lawrence Seaway Company, which would hold a monopoly on shipping if not for the fact that it is a nonprofit organization, is optimistic for the overall shipment rates that 2016 will bring. CEO Terence Bowles stated that the opening during the third week of March meant earlier shipments and more returns for clients, who previously had to move cargo on railways with far lesser efficiency. Betty Sutton, the administrator of the United States's St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, agrees. Sutton says that bulk cargo will continue to be the "bread and butter" of the Great Lakes shipping throughout the spring, summer, and autumn seasons. She notes that a liner cargo shipping route from Cleveland to Europe has managed to grow by four hundred percent in just two years. Muskegon may not get the raw freight that they're in search of to drive a competitive jobs market, but their fate may not hinge on the biggest ships on the waves either. The dualuse port allows a
large number of recreational ships sailboats, motorboats, and fishing craft to call their registry home in the city. What's more, cruise ships plying their trade on the Great Lakes have been drawn to Muskegon as a port of call. The Pearl Mist, a cruise ship owned by Pearl Seas Cruises, will stop in both Muskegon and Holland, Michigan. Cruise ships are increasingly looking for ways to collect new tourists, and a Great Lakes circuit offers vast possibilities in a market nearly void of competition. For Muskegon, it's welcome news, and they're not sitting back waiting for the business to come. The county intends to improve the Heritage Landing dock in order to attract even more ships from home and abroad to do business at their port.